BOOK AS A COMPANION

"A BOOK IS A GARDEN, AN ORCHARD, A STOREHOUSE, A PARTY, A COMPANY BY THE WAY, A COUNSELLOR, A MULTITUDE OF COUNSELLORS" - H. W. Beecher

The book is a companion that does not praise you and does not entice you to evil.  It is a friend that does not bore you, and it is a neighbour that causes you no harm. It is an acquaintance that desires not to extract from you favours through flattery, and it does not deceive you with duplicity and lies. When you are pouring through the pages of a book, your senses are stimulated and your intellect sharpens. It can even be said that you sometimes learn from the pages of a book in a month, that which you do not learn from the tongues of men in a century. 

The book obeys you by night as it does by day, both when you are travelling and when you are at home.  A book is not impaired by sleep nor does it tire in the late hours of the night.  It is the teacher who is there for you whenever you are in need of it, and it is the teacher who, if you refuse to give to it, does not refuse to give to you.  If you abandon it, it does not decrease in obedience.  If the only benefit of a book was that it keeps you from foolish daydreaming and prevents you from frivolity, it would certainly be considered a true friend who has given you a great favour.